


lost kin

by relationshipcrimes



Series: entomology [8]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Plays Somebody I Used To Know on a shitty kazoo from another room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 13:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18812167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relationshipcrimes/pseuds/relationshipcrimes
Summary: After passing along his nail art, Oro sees the Knight off with some parting words.





	lost kin

When the Knight learns Oro's nail art, they do not intend to come back. Nailmaster Oro looks like someone the Knight used to know--a friendly face in a warm house at the dusty, absent edges of the kingdom--but this is not enough for Oro's house to taste like pleasantry. Oro's house tastes like nail-steel. Anger, and something else. There is no smell whatsoever of the geo Oro took from the Knight to learn his nail art. It is only when the Knight is leaving, without any hint that they will ever return, that Oro says, "You look like someone I used to know."

The Knight doesn't turn from the open doorway. Outside, the soft air of the kingdom's edge trails across the threshold. 

"I do not know if that means anything to you," says Oro. "But there is someone out there who looks just like you."

The Knight takes one step around and turns to face him.

Oro grimaces. He heaves himself to his feet, as if his own weight is too much for even the hours of training he does every day, stumps to the open door, and glares outside. There's no proper door, but he doesn't put even a single hand through the doorway. "Yes, I'd supposed you'd want to know," says Oro shortly. "In this land, there are so few people who we meet who are like us. But I do not tell you this so that you can find your self in someone else's face. Do not mistake this for kindness. I tell you this for their benefit alone."

The Knight tilts their head.

"In case you see them," says Oro, "they are no infected husk. Do not mistake them for an enemy. They are only a little taller than you, with a mask like your own, and a cloak of your color but long and ratted. Three spokes upon their head, one longer than the others--" and Oro gestures with his hands in the shape of three horns.

The Knight sees this without comment, and draws their mothwing cloak and their monarch wings a little tighter around themselves.

"And tell them, if they are safe--" says Oro, and then stops.

"They can do what they like--" Oro begins again, and stops.

"My house here is always--" Oro says, and stops.

"If the nail art I taught them has served them well--" and stops. 

Oro studies the pale skin drifting along the air jut outside his door. The Knight doesn't move.

"May they find the family they're looking for," says Oro at last. "Tell them that."

The Knight does not reply. Eventually, Oro stumps back to his spot on the floor, and doesn't see the Knight, slowly, nod once.


End file.
